Black Ice
by BlackApology
Summary: After D.C. Steve is left with only Sam by his side searching fruitlessly for his brainwashed assassin best friend and a questionable ally that left with said best friend. Demons go ignored in his daily life, shoved to a corner of his mind where they can't usually bother him, and things are just all around dandy. Hmm? Oh yeah, there's also that girl. - Side fic to No One -


Tu-duh! I mentioned this story a year ago and I've finally gotten the first chapter out. That's kinda sad. My gosh I can't believe it's been a year already. So I'll do the proper "I'm Back!" in the next chapter of BtI which I hope to get out to you guys within the next week. I just wanted to let you guys know really quick that I'm still alive. And, oh yeah. I'm back!

 **Dislaimer: Nothing you recognize belongs to me.**

[o]

Chapter 1

An Artist in the Park

The sky was still dark when I left to go on my jog, like it always is. Even though early mornings in New York weren't nearly as peaceful as mornings in D.C., it was much better than New York during the day.

Two months had passed since I woke up. The first month was spent recovering and moving over to Avengers Tower in case Hydra was still lurking around D.C. The next month was spent looking for anything on where Bucky might be. A month of searching for Bucky, a month of putting up with Stark in his tower. A month of betrayal over May.

Sam and I were currently staying in Avengers Tower to lay low, both deciding staying in D.C. wouldn't be wise at the moment, and in that time all we had come up with in searching for Bucky were dead ends or false leads. And then there was May, who had gained my trust in just the few days I knew her, who had risked her life to help me take down S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA just two months before, then left without looking back.

The voicemail on Sam's phone was all but seared into my brain with how much I had listened to it when I first woke up, and I remembered her explanation perfectly. She claimed she was trying to help him regain his memories, but didn't she think I could do that as well?

Deep down I knew I was being ridiculous, that she could obviously help him more than I could – with her ability of healing – but it was easier to ignore that feeling, just like it was easier to ignore memories, and nightmares. It's just easier to ignore everything and focus on the things at hand.

The park I had taken up to running in was both large and not overly populated, and that's exactly why I chose it. Sure, it wasn't ideal like my spot in D.C., but I'd take anything I could get.

I was able to stop thinking into it, and all that filled my mind was the sound of my own feet hitting the ground, avoiding the few people – the homeless – that were awake at this hour, and there were no thoughts crowding my mind. In an hour, at 7, Sam would normally join me, but today he was taking the day off since he had pushed himself too hard the night before while training.

The hours passed quickly and before I knew it I was heading back to the tower. Only I wasn't quite ready to go back yet.

Anywhere I went the tower was visible, high above the buildings around it, and looking at it now only reminded me what I was going back to. Stark with his awful humor – when he actually showed up from his lab, that is – the silence of Sam and I sorting through files and going through anything we thought could give us a clue on where Bucky was hiding, and the sore ache when we didn't find anything.

So instead of going back to the tower I found myself walking in a different direction toward another little park I had found – also without too much population, but this one had a large pond.

It wasn't the first time I had stopped at this park, either, so my feet led me to my usual spot on the little bridge over the water, and I watched a duck swim past me with her ducklings trailing behind, the sound of a fountain splashing behind me, and I let myself think.

I thought about my past – my _first_ life – and I remembered my friends and family. I thought of the sick little man I had been before the serum, and even though things were definitely harder now, I didn't regret for a moment leaving behind the safety of home.

I thought of her, of Peggy. Peggy, who had gotten married and had a family while I was frozen in the ice, who was now old with a lifetime of memories behind her. I thought of Bucky who had been taken away from me, and even though the man who I fought on the carriers wasn't the same man who had fallen to his death nearly 70 years ago, he was still my friend. My friend was still inside the assassin HYDRA had made.

Sam didn't believe me when I said it was Bucky who dragged me out of the water. He tried to stay optimistic about it, but still thought it was May. I knew it wasn't true, though, because May had been too far behind to reach me in time. She wouldn't be strong enough to pull me from the water in her condition, after having held off Bucky so I could put the chip in. And I had seen Bucky's face when I told him to finish it. I could see him hesitate in hitting me again, but then I had fallen, and I would never know what his next move would have been.

My thoughts wandered between the past and the present, but after some time I became aware that someone was watching me. My thoughts were brought back and my eyes darted around at the few people present, looking for any threats. There was a man jogging with his dog, a couple sitting in the grass, a few people hailing taxis, and a woman sitting on a bench nearby hunched over something she held in her lap. None of them were threats, though, and my eyes turned to the trees and few bushes around us, wondering if I was being ambushed, but after a moment I deemed that unlikely as well: it was too public for HYDRA. So if I wasn't being ambushed, who…

"Excuse me," said a voice from behind me. I turned around quickly and was faced with the woman who had been sitting on the bench nearby. She clutched something to her chest and gave me a sheepish smile.

"Sorry for surprising you." I scanned her quickly one more time for anything that would make her a threat, but there wasn't anything and I gave her a smile of my own.

"It's fine. Can I help you with something?" She hesitated for a second, then nodded, taking a step closer and flipping through the book she had previously clutched to her chest.

"Yes, actually. You see, I come here often to draw, and I normally do nature, and stuff, because we don't see that very often in New York, but sometimes I do the people I see, and today I drew you." I looked down at the drawing the girl thrust at me and blinked as I saw myself in there. The detail was impeccable, and I saw that as a person who likes to draw myself.

"I wanted to ask if it was okay. I sell my drawings, you see." I looked at the drawing for another second, spotting what might have been sadness in the blue eyes staring into space, and thrust it back at her.

"It's a great drawing, really, but I'll have to ask you not to sell it." Pictures of me floating around New York wasn't a good idea. Not when I wanted to keep Avengers fans off my back, and to avoid any attention HYDRA might turn towards it.

Her face fell a little but she nodded.

"Okay, that's fine. It's not the first time I've heard that at all." Then to my surprise she tore the page out and handed it to me.

"You can keep it, if you want. I don't have any use for it now." I took it in surprise, debating on whether to fold it and put it in my pocket, to keep my hands free, or hold it to keep it from creasing. I finally settled on holding it, but the woman still hadn't left.

"Do you need anything else?" She didn't say anything and I noticed she was studying my face with a critical eye and warning bells went off in my mind, then her gaze suddenly softened and she quirked her head to the side a bit.

"Have you heard of Captain America?" I tensed immediately, eyes darting around us for anyone who might be listening but there wasn't anyone.

"Yes," I forced out. She didn't seem to notice how tense I was, though, and continued on.

"You look a lot like him." Before I could respond in any way she continued on. "I mean, I wouldn't really know because of his mask, but I mean…" she trailed off, and then she was suddenly flipping through her book again.

"I saw them, you see, when they were fighting the aliens. The Avengers, I mean." And then she was holding another picture out to me, this one of me and Thor fighting side by side.

"See, the ratios are nearly the same as your own. Captain America's ratios. And none of the men I usually draw come even close to him." She was tracing her finger lightly across the drawing of Captain America – me – probably tracing the ratios she was talking about, then looked up at me. "That was a compliment." She didn't give me enough time to figure out what I was supposed to say to that before she had continued.

"That's what I meant when I said you look like him." My hand reached up and scratched the back of my head, the universal sign that I had no idea what to do right now.

"Oh. Thanks, I guess." Then she was looking up into my eyes once again and I shuffled a bit on my feet. What would Sam do in this situation? Probably flirt, so that was no help.

"You _are_ him, aren't you?" She didn't even wait a second for a reply before she was talking again. "Don't answer that! You'll probably deny it whether it's true or not, especially with that whole debacle back in D.C., so I'm going to give you a way out of this increasingly awkward situation." I blinked at her in surprise: I have no idea what's going on.

"Okay, so I've been trying to get in touch with any of the Avengers for a very long time now. Not because I'm a reporter! Because I drew some pictures of you guys and need to get permission to sell them. I _do not_ want to go through all that lawsuit crud Tony Stark's been putting all of the other artists through, but they've just been sitting in my apartment for nearly a year now. So, if you just so happen to have any contact with any of the Avengers, maybe you could ask them for me?" and the look she gave me was the epitome of puppy dog eyes, only much more convincing, so I found myself nodding in bewilderment, very confused.

A smile broke across her face and she pulled her book back toward her.

"Thank you. I mean, if you just so happen to have any Avenger friends. I mean acquaintances."

"Yeah… um yeah. I'll see if that could possibly happen," and I knew that was pretty much admitting that I was in fact Captain America, but at my confession nothing grew in her eyes that alarmed me. Nothing but that she grew noticeably happier.

"Great, so I'll see you here tomorrow? I can bring more of my drawings to show you what I'm talking about." I was relieved she didn't ask for my cell number or email address, because I certainly wasn't going to give those to her. Even though I was nearly certain that she wasn't working for HYDRA, she could just be a reporter in disguise, waiting for a story to get her to the top, and I couldn't afford to be portrayed all over the news right now.

"Yeah," I agreed. "8:30 works for you?" Because my jog doesn't end until eight, it takes about ten minutes to get here, and I'd want some time to scope out the area before she got here, in case she was just a really good actor who was working for HYDRA. She nodded.

"It's a date!" She stopped and thought about that as my heart stopped in shock. "Not a _date_ date, but a date. It's a term," she explained, starting back to the bench she had been on before. "See you then!" And before she could say anything else I had turned and headed out of the park, with nothing but confusion and the remains of shock on my mind and a drawing clenched in my hand.

What just happened?

[o]

Updates for this story will sort of just be whenever the chapters come to me since it's really not my main concern right now. I'll try to update fairly often just the same.


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